Skydiving vs Bungee vs Hang Gliding

You can only do one of; skydiving, bungee jumping and hang gliding before your heart gave way. Furthermore you are low on cash and possibly opportunity. Can you decide on which extreme activity to partake in? I am now ready to reveal my answer to this modern age debacle.

Bungee Gets Crossed Out

As brutal as it sounds bungy jumping can be easily ruled out. "Of the three activities the actual bungy free fall experience is like some peoples' sex lives; ends as quickly as it starts." Depending on how high you leap, bungy will last between 4 to 6 seconds. Another factor going against bungy is that you can't appreciate the views. This relates back to how the experience is short. Something you don't get told is that due to the acceleration of your fall the wind does get into your eyes (maybe I'm just a big scary cat). Therefore you do miss out on the experience visually. At the end you find yourself dangling upside down which impairs your view.

This Leaves Us With Skydiving And Hang Gliding

Lets examine the differences between the two experiences. In terms of scare factor I would say skydiving would beat hang gliding. I actually thought I was going to plummet to my death during the free fall stage of skydiving. However mentally preparing your mind to run at full speed, off the edge of a cliff whilst holding onto a light metal frame, does strike a "are we really doing this for real" chord. Both skydiving and hang gliding offer excellent views of your surroundings.

Close Call Between Skydiving And Hang Gliding

For me the deciding factor in choosing which activity I recommend over the other relates to the entire process. In hang gliding you start off at the cliff departure point, sprint off the cliff, begin flying journey and continue till you land. Whereas in skydiving you start off in an airport hangar, jump into a plane, jump out of the plane, free fall, cruise when the final chute is pulled, and then land. It is the variety of altitudes, highly dramatic and heart stopping experience which has made me sway towards Skydiving as the ultimate gravity defying activity one has to experience before dying.

Conclusion

What are you thoughts on skydiving, bungee and hang gliding? Leave your questions, opinions and experiences on the comment section down below.

6 Comments

If I had to pick one it would be between Sky diving and Hang gliding. After that it depends on if you want the adrenaline rush or the feeling of flight. I guess if I was only going to be able to do one of these things and only one time then I’d pick skydiving the rush is nuts and you don’t need much skill to really get the full effect. Falling is falling no matter how much other stuff you do during the fall. Yes you can fall in different ways and move your body so you are more or less stable and control it a little but whether you fall with style or just fall the feeling is about the same, a pure rush of adrenaline and then relief when the chute opens.

If you have more time and the question is which do if you can only do one of these things but you get to do it over and over again Hang gliding is hands down, heads up the winner. It is the closest thing that anyone who has ever dreamed of flying will ever experience. However, to get the full effect you have to actually learn how to do it and do it well. The first times out with a glider you may be just doing ground work and you will never even get off the ground. The first attempts to get off the ground may be small disasters. But the freedom one gets when you know how to fly and It’s just you and the wind is amazing. You can go anywhere, stay in the air for hours, feel the wind interacting with the wing, respond to it both consciously and unconsciously and feel as if you are an entirely new being.

For me Skydiving was once in a lifetime thing and then I was done. After skydiving I can’t say I’ve ever looked to the sky and day-dreamed of skydiving again. And if I do dream of it, it is usually a nightmare where the chute malfunctions. I guess I just count skydiving as my day I was lucky enough to cheat certain death with a parachute and the only reason I’d ever do it again would be for that reason (aka bale from a crashing plane).
Hang gliding on the other hand is way different. It is something I day-dream about almost constantly, every time I see a small cumulus or gentle wave cloud, a bird soaring, or a large valley surrounded by mountains. It may have been a day since I’ve flown or years but the feeling and desire to go back into the sky and ride the wind stays with you forever. Even on the ground hang gliding has given me an awareness of the air that I’ve never had before. And as for the flying it is both the feeling of ultimate freedom and the feeling of an intimate connection and interaction to things unseen all wrapped into one. It is the feeling of the wind as a friend and the sky as a magical place that you can not stay in but always wish to return. It is the gratitude to the earth for letting you escape its bound for a little while, the wind for excepting you, and then to the earth and wind for returning you safely back to home. It is a feeling of connection that is beyond words and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Wow you covered it really well. Do you hang glide without an instructor? Yeah you definitely take in the views more with hang gliding as it is not as scary as sky diving. Thanks for popping in, you really understand the spiritual side of hang gliding and nature.

Righ here is the perfect web site for anybody wwho hopes too find
out about this topic. Youu understand so much itss almost hard to argue with yoou (not that I really wouod wantt to…HaHa).
You definitely putt a brand new spin oon a subject that has bden written about for a long time.
Great stuff,just excellent!

Which sport would you (or anybody) recommend as a potential hobby for someone who found tandem sky-diving fairly underwhelming?

I’ve only done it once (14,000 feet). The first ten seconds of freefall was great, then my body got used to it and I kind of had to continue “woohooing” because I didn’t want to offend the instructor lol (and it would’ve make the video a lot less entertaining). I suppose I just thought it would be scarier from everything I’ve heard.
I know going solo would of course be a hundred times scarier but I can’t really afford the amount required to do that as a hobby. Plus the drop is over relatively quick.

If anybody has any recommendations or suggestions, even if the cost is high, I’d love to know. 🙂

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